One Eclipse, One Hurricane, One Dead Monitor, and ONE MONTH Later…

The last month has been a whirlwind!! A crazy, mother-nature filled, life event packed, whirlwind.

It’s hard to believe that only a month ago, we road-tripped 12 hours away to Nashville.  .  .  and took a day and a half to get there. (It seems SO LONG AGO already.)

After being stuck on 5 miles of interstate in Texarkana for four hours, (because of a major accident in a major construction zone,) we had to stop for the night just short of Memphis and continue our journey to Nashville the following day.

In Nashville, I got to meet an online bestie for the second time in real life, our kids got to meet for the first time ever, and we enjoyed visiting with them and staying at their house for a few days.

But that wasn’t the only online bestie reunion that happened on our trip! My girls got to meet an online friend from Kentucky, in the most tear-filled, laughter-filled, beautiful run-hug-cry you ever did see.

We saw the Nashville Parthenon, visited a book store, and watched the eclipse at one of the public libraries. It was a lot of fun! The total eclipse was one of the neatest things we’ve ever experienced, hands down.  The visit was short, however, and we were back on the road–taking a “longer” (but ultimately faster) alternate route home to avoid all the construction in Arkansas–which included a very interesting Google Maps detour on a mountainous dirt road in Louisiana! (Always an adventure!!)

The following day Catie started her fall semester classes at the nearby junior college.

This semester, Catie has classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. (Yes, she missed her first day of class to see the eclipse.) She’s taking Composition 1, Digital Art 2, and Art Appreciation.

While we were out of state, my husband finalized the purchase of a new-to-us used car that will make a great commuter car for Catie to get to school. Until she gets her license (SOON!!) I’m still driving her to classes, so Wednesday we were up’and’at’em to jump back into real life.

So the rest of that week was spent getting used to the new car, commuting to classes, unpacking and recovering from our road trip, pulling off a back-to-school youth movie night at church,… and shopping for a new computer monitor. 

Just before we left for Nashville, my monitor died, and when we returned home I confirmed that the monitor was really dead. I couldn’t write that week, I couldn’t get any work done at all.

Fortunately for me, blogging isn’t the only thing I do. I also help my husband with some marketing projects, so a new monitor was an actual business need. 

And then a hurricane blew in and my back went out.

We’re far enough from the Texas shore that we weren’t expecting any major damage from Hurricane Harvey. We WERE expecting a lot more rain that we actually received. So by week’s end we were tucked safely in our house with groceries and water and waiting for rain.

By Sunday evening we could tell that Harvey wasn’t going to behave like a normal hurricane, and also that my back had had ENOUGH.  I’d put it through too much: traveling in cars for hours, cleaning without taking breaks, grocery shopping, moving chairs at church, and so much more.

Unfortunately, that week was also the first week of dance classes, AND the Tech week for the stage play that Arielle is in (the final week of work leading up to opening weekend.) In addition to driving Catie to school three times in the week, I needed to drive to dance classes three days, the theater each day, and run all of my other errands. I couldn’t stay home in bed, but by resting my back every chance I got, using my heating pad and doing my chiropractic stretches, I was able to slowly realign my back and relieve the pain.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Harvey left a different mark on our part of Texas. By Thursday, the general public had been stirred into a panic over rising gas prices and possible gas shortages. A massive public run on the gas stations created a problem for gas stations as they couldn’t keep up with demand and had to wait for more fuel to be delivered. Prices rose and gas stations were swarmed every time a new delivery arrived. It was literally mass hysteria. 

The bright side of this public gas frenzy is that my husband and I opted to conserve fuel as much as possible by staying home as much as we could and combining errand-running so only one of us was taking a vehicle into town. Staying home was great for my back, too, and good timing since my new monitor had arrived and I had a lot of marketing work to catch up on! 

Labor Day also means my birthday–and usually the start of school.

My birthday falls around Labor Day each year. This year we gathered at my mom’s house on Labor Day for a gluten-free birthday meal of fajitas with corn tortillas and lime cilantro rice. I do love Mexican food!!

Because we conserved fuel, we weathered the fuel panic just fine. By the time we needed to fill up, gas stations were starting to be able to keep some gasoline in their tanks for more than a partial day. The situation has mostly corrected itself now, but there are still a few kinks and a higher price on gas now.

And Life Kept Plowing Through

While there were no major catastrophes or life events during the second week of September, (THANKFULLY,) I did manage to start catching up on things while I watched the curriculum pieces I finally ordered arrive one-by-one. Catie’s driver’s license has been delayed unfortunately, because both of our vehicles need some kind of maintenance to make them acceptable for her to take the test. Meanwhile, I’ve agreed to so much chauffeuring and shuttling for my three kids that I’m flailing for some kind of routine and schedule.

And just when I thought I was starting to figure some things out, this past week had to make its mark on the calendar as well–marked by a dead water heater, cleaning up the resulting mess, a sinus infection and strep throat for Arielle, and trying to keep the rest of us from getting sick. There’s no rest for the weary!!

By this point, we’ve normally started our school year. We usually begin after Labor Day if we didn’t already start on September 1st or at the end of August. But ALAS. We didn’t start school in August. We didn’t start school the week of Labor Day. But I DID spend the last couple of weeks getting ready for that. I’ve completely redesigned our school space–swapping desks in favor of a comfortable learning space. I’ve stocked up on supplies and added some necessary curriculum pieces.

And now we can begin! 

Has it only been a month?

I can’t believe it’s only been a month since we left for Tennessee. So much has happened,…it seems more like two. I feel like I haven’t had time to sit down and write for WAY TOO LONG.

I need to write and create and have this outlet. 

So I’m thankful for my new monitor, I’m thankful that I’ve been able to catch up on things enough to carve out some time to sit down and write, and I’m also thankful for everything we’ve been blessed with in the past month. With all the crazy going on in the world right now, there are still so many blessings to be thankful for. 

So friends, there WILL be a curriculum post coming. There WILL be a school room post coming. But not today. 😉 Not today, because life happens. Not today, because life has been full and busy and unexpected and surprising, but also really good.

And it seems lately, that right now, that’s how life is. Full, busy, unexpected, surprising, but good. 

I hope you’ve had a better start to your school year than we have! How has your school year been going so far? I’m glad we’re finally able to get our year up and running. Stay tuned for how well that goes. 😉  May you be blessed this week!